TWO former sprinters who transformed their careers by switching to the endurance program were the toast of Australia’s track cycling team overnight when they won gold medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Annette Edmondson (10km scratch race) and Scott Sunderland (1km time trial) made it a golden double for Australia on day three of the Games.

Edmondson capitalised on the outstanding work of her teammates Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins to win a bunch sprint before Sunderland produced a heroic performance to defend his 1km crown from Delhi.

Minutes before Sunderland took to the start line he watched New Zealand rival Matthew Archibald break his Commonwealth Games record with a time of 1.01.06.

But the 26-year-old responded by snatching his record back with a blistering 1.00.675 which was just as well because another Kiwi Simon van Velthooven who was on the track at the same time rode a 1.01.06.

Scott Sunderland celebrates winning gold in the 1000m time trial in Games record time.Source: Getty Images

Sunderland, who in January became the first Australian cyclist to go under the magical one-minute mark for 1km, was a team sprint world champion in 2012 before joining Tim Decker’s endurance program in 2013.

He came to Glasgow as part of the team pursuit squad but missed out on a ride and any disappointment soon disappeared when he had a gold medal around his neck.

“I’ve recently changed (from sprint) to endurance so I knew I was always going to be a bit slow coming off the start line,” Sunderland said.

“But with all the training I’ve been doing with Tim Decker as my coach it’s more distance-based and that last lap of speed I had no idea where I stood but I had really good strength and was able to finish it off.

“It took me at least one lap to come around to see where I stood, I finished and was pretty dizzy in that last lap so I quickly looked at the scoreboards at either end and by the time I looked at the front one I couldn’t really make out where I stood.

Scott Sunderland celebrates winning gold in the 1000m time trial in Games record time.Source: Getty Images

“I still had to double take on what the time was because it was pretty fast and I was hoping it would be around that time.

“Tim and I in the short period we’ve been together we’ve just clicked. There was a lot of umming and ahhing whether I should change from sprint to endurance and to pull it off in that short time and still be able to reclaim the crown from Delhi is amazing and it’s good signs of what’s to come later on.”

Sunderland’s win followed an amazing performance from Edmondson who won the women’s 10km scratch title and Cure finished second in an Aussie one-two.

Edmondson was a star junior sprinter but switched to the track endurance program at the age of 16 and called on her sprinting background to get her home in the scratch race.

Hoskins was in the early move in case a threat got away but when it came back together the attacks started to come with 15 laps to go.

That’s when Cure stepped up with an aggressive move on the front and the pint-sized Tasmanian drove a furious pace for nearly two full laps.

With the pack bearing down on her on the final turn, Edmondson called on her sprinting background and timed her move to perfection to secure victory then put her arm around her teammates.

“I’d dreamt about that, even last night after the pursuit I was struggling to sleep and it was also quite hot so I was thinking about it and imagining the feeling if I crossed the line first and it actually happened,” Edmondson said.

“I’ve never actually won a gold medal at international level like this, I’ve always come home with seconds and thirds at world championships and Olympics, so this was really special and the girls did a brilliant job out there.

“We had such a good combination of riders, we had to make sure we were represented in every move and I couldn’t ask more of my teammates.”

“That (sprint background) really helped. I’ve learnt how to look over my shoulder and judge pace of riders coming at me and I’ve also been able to judge my sprint,” she said.

“I was putting out peak wattage in training a couple of weeks ago so I knew the form was there, I just had to trust myself and my teammates.”

Cure said the team executed its plan perfectly.

“Part of the plan was to get Nettie that gold medal, she’s such a smart sprinter that she waited until the last minute to make a move and that made it a lot harder for the others to come around both myself and Nettie,” Cure said.

“I can’t thank her enough and she’s really the reason we kept that silver as well.

“I thought they were all swamping me and it wasn’t until a metre before the finish line I realised ‘hang on, no one is coming here’ it was an amazing experience.”

Earlier in the men’s tandem sprint, Scottish pair Neil Fachie and Craig Maclean held off Australia’s Kieran Modra and Jason Niblett who took silver in a best-of-three showdown.